News from Chicago's Rogers Park and Edgewater neighborhoods

Menu

Howard Street Brewing to Open in May

Howard Street Brewing Company will open in May, just east of the El stop in the old Howard Theatre Building. Owner Chuck Patella said he’s been brewing his own beer for years, and finally decided to “go public” with his passion.

“I’ve been making beer for about 10 years now – nothing professional, just in my house,” Patella said. “… It sorta got to the point where I was just making it so much that it was going pretty quickly that I decided that it was probably time to start doing something professionally.”

Don’t look for televisions all over the place, or live bands. Patella, 40, said the business will be all about beer, and the creative process that goes into it.

“We want this to be a place that inspires ideas and we think the best way to do that is to not have a lot of outside distractions,” he said. “We’re not going to have TV’s we’re not going to have live bands, it’s really just going to be the brew.”

Patella’s wife works next door at the Factory Theatre, which is what lead him to choose the location.

He also likes the fact that Rogers Park is “a really diverse neighborhood with a lot of history there. We wanted to do something that sort of celebrates Howard Street and the history that it’s had there.”

One feature of the business will be a program called “Design. Brew. Wed.” which will allow people to help design the beer for their own wedding.

“I think what we’re trying to do is explore all different kinds of beer styles right, like we don’t want to be pigeon holed into an IPA, or just sours,” he said.